February 28, 2010

"The historical chapters on the expansion of the East India Company, the martial races and the role of the Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars shed new light on these subjects and make readers aware of new histography" —Harsh Pant, Asian Affairs

February 27, 2010

"Dr. Yafeng Xia's study is premised on a rich array of U.S. and Chinese sources. His analysis is powerful and conclusions trustworthy. This book is one of best recent works on the history of Sino-American relations." —Hui He, Leng zhan guo ji shi yan jiu (Cold War International History Studies)

Americans
tend to draw a sharp line between their country's racial past and its
racial present: Before the 1960s we had slavery and Jim Crow, Native
American genocide and the theft of Indian lands, anti-Asian immigration
laws and the internment of Japanese Americans, Plessy v. Ferguson and
Bull Connor. After the civil rights movement, in contrast, we've seen
dramatic progress in terms of policies and especially with respect to
racial attitudes. "Racists" are few are far between; the goal of equal
opportunity across lines of race has more or less been achieved, Barack
Obama’s election serving as the capstone to America's triumphant racial
march.

While this story has much to recommend it,
unfortunately it hardly captures the whole truth about the continuing
significance of race in the United States today. Indeed, over the
course of the year that President Obama has been in office, the
racialized counterpoints have come fast and furious: the disparate
racial impacts of our credit, lending and foreclosure crises; the
ongoing economic recession that has widened preexisting racialized gaps
in well-being; the debate over health care, now seemingly doomed to an
unhappy ending; the hullabaloo over Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina”
claim, the “Birthers” phenomenon… on and on.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. Our challenge, as ever, is to muster the insight and will to see our way forward.

Now,
we invite you to join us for a real-time, face-to-face conversation. On
March 11-13, 2010 at the Hyatt Hotel on Capitol Square in downtown
Columbus, Ohio, the staff of the Kirwan Institute and some 600-700
advocates, activists, scholars, students, spoken-word artists and other
performers and practitioners of all stripes will engage pressing issues
of race and ethnicity in the United States. We’ll have more than 50
plenary sessions and panels, workshops and performances, and plenty of
challenging questions and provocative insights.

Race is not the
only edge along which we divide in the United States and around the
world, but it remains perhaps the sharpest. The Kirwan Institute, and Transforming Race,
are dedicated to the proposition that we can transform the meanings and
operations of race through informed dialogue, practices, and policies
that create and expand opportunity for all. We invite you to contribute
your energy and your ideas. We hope you'll agree that the agenda is spectacular.

Post
your answer (one entry per person, please!) in the comments section
below. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT tonight for a chance to win Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class. Good luck!

February 25, 2010

The Association of American University Presses selected two IU Press books as some of the very best examples in design for its "Book, Jacket, and Journal Show." From more than 280 entries, the judges honored 56 books, 1 journal, and 40 jackets/covers. The two IU Press books, both selected for the "Trade Typographic" category, are:

Author Bonnie Morris (Revenge of the Women's Studies Professor)will be on the University of Tennessee Chattanooga campus for its Women's Studies Lecture Series. Morris will present her one woman show Revenge of the Women's Studies Professor March 4. The event is free and open to the public. For more details, visit the Women's Studies Lecture Series website.

The following day, Morris will give a lunch talk entitled "The Female Gaze: A conversation with Bonnie Morris" at the Hunter Museum of American Art. For more details, visit the museum's website.

The answer to yesterday's trivia question was B. Progress. IU Press's colophon was an adaptation of an Indian pictograph that symbolized progress, for it depicted two Indian hunters striking out on a trail.

Today's trivia question focuses on a different kind of trail—IU Press's journey through various offices. Our current home is on 601 N. Morton St. Which of the following has NOT been a former location for IU Press offices:

A. The Graduate SchoolB. Wylie HouseC. Ashton CenterD. The Library

Post
your answer (one entry per person, please!) in the comments section
below. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT tonight for a chance to win Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class. Good luck!

February 24, 2010

Performing South Africa’s Truth Commission is about the
messy, uncertain process of transition from authoritarian to democratic
rule, and the quasi-judicial ritual that South Africa used to help
accomplish such a transition. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) was an attempt to draw a line in the sand, to say, “that was
then, this is now.” The TRC tried to separate the massive atrocities
and gross violations of human rights so routinely perpetrated during
forty years of apartheid from the country’s new dispensation post
1994—a multi-racial democracy with one of the most progressive
constitutions in the world.

This is the first book to examine a unique and defining feature of
South Africa’s TRC: its public iteration in front of audiences. Prior
to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which began in
1996, there had been sixteen other truth commissions in the world, in
places ranging from Uganda to Argentina. Yet South Africa’s truth
commission had the distinction of being the first to transpire overtly
in the public eye. Hearings happened on raised platforms and stages
throughout the country, with spectators attending in person, and radio
and television broadcasts transforming the commission into a media
event in which thousands participated.